This one went through a few stages. At first I had just Power posing, then decided to add in a couple anons. Then, last minute while coloring, I decided to make the anons Silas and Yoinks just for funsies. Anyway, I kinda liked the idea of Power incorporating a lesson suggestion from Denji, carrying over something he picked up during his past arc. Hope y’all enjoy.
Another year, another Halloween party here in the Studio. This year’s party felt like it took longer than usual, and I think that might be in part because I tried to fit too much into each panel. Not only does this make the page take longer to get out, but it also makes the figures smaller and maybe even harder to make out, so I’m going to try avoiding that for the Christmas party if I can. I am happy with everything we fit in, though.
There’s a couple characters here we haven’t seen in a while, maybe even some of you didn’t even know some of them were in the Studio. This year I finally got to do something with Carmella Creeper, the undead DJ from the monster cereal line. I always pictured her in charge of the music for these parties, but this year we got to see her. We also got a fun little nod to the Poll Me Closer series, plus I finally got to pair Corey Park with one of the Tom & Jerry witches I introduced last October. We also have a follow-up to the Canute Ask. Of the costume ideas submitted, Link and Zelda just seemed weirdly fitting and also gave me some ideas for how to use them in a scene.
I hope y’all enjoy this year’s party! In spite of it all I’m pretty happy with the final page, and I’m already busy working on Christmas’s!
So here’s the other Spookyverse Bio I’m planning to go public in October this year. Obviously there’s some overlap here with Ember’s bio, but Silas has his own things going on. Of the human activities he’s been interested in through his investigations, I thought it’d be funny if he was interested in basketball. Maybe he identifies with the ball somehow.
It’s been a few years since I said I’d stop making an effort to introduce a new Spookyverse character every Halloween season, but I think I’ve still managed to introduce one every year anyway. This time I was wanting to try something different, instead of looking to classic horror for inspiration I wanted something more modern. The idea here was to try and tap into more internet-era horror concepts like creepypastas, ARGs and the like. I think the concept I landed on has a strong element of backrooms to it, with a touch of the Infinity Devil from Chainsaw Man, and probably a few other familiar influences mixed in. Mx. Vacancy is meant to feel a bit like a modern horror mascot type character, and I hope you’ll all like them.
Obviously the joke here is that the POV anon who stumbled into the Grand Vacancy Hotel made a request to have sex with Mx. Vacancy without specifying who’s topping. I see Mx. Vacancy as a bit like Butt Witch, in that they can change their body in some limited ways without being a full-blown shapeshifter. So here they made sure they had a nice big cock to grant this customer’s wish. Since I see this character as a bit of a enigmatic and mysterious entity, I decided to go with a non-binary identity for them. I also just think Mx. Vacancy sounds cooler than Ms. Vacancy or Mr. Vacancy.
I’m looking to get two Spookyverse Bios out for October this year, one for each of the Holloways. Up first is Ember, and I’ll have Silas ready in a few days.
Blinky and Clyde get semi-regular Asks submitted for them, and a lot more this month after it became clear I was focusing on a few Halloween Asks. Unfortunately, both of them are a bit tricky to do much with in Asks. You see, when I make Spookyverse characters, I often think about how they’d work if they were in a legitimate horror movie (or the like). For the Punchinello Pranksters, this means they have a bit of a group dynamic. Inky and Pinky are kinda the faces of the group, the ones with more personality who get all the dialogue. Clyde is more of the silent, creepy supporting character, while Blinky’s the one who mostly communicates through laughing. Of course, those aren’t hard rules and I could break them at any time, but since they haven’t shown up much I haven’t had much opportunity to convey these elements of their characters. This Ask was convenient because it’s focused a lot more on Kazuma’s reaction, something he does well in his own role in his show. Having an over-the-top reaction to some trouble he got into due to the proclivities of Darkness is just as much on-brand for him as laughing at nothing is for Blinky.
Here’s another spooky Halloween Ask that my Subscribers got a few months early. I don’t know if Silas has a “slutty” side, but I feel like it’d be more accurate to say he doesn’t have the cultural stigmas and societal concepts one would need to develop such a thing. I didn’t really feel like it mattered who topped him in that sense, and just kinda let a random guy fuck him since I felt like that’s mostly what people would want to see from an Ask like this.
So for all my Subscribers, this current batch of Asks are coming out in August. However, it’ll be October by the time they go public, so I’ve sed aside a couple “spooky” ones I thought might be fun. This one’s pretty straightforward, but I thought it’d be fun to see Lydia again after her MomSwap, and I always enjoy an excuse to have Yumi and Michiyo work together.
Like with Serie, Sadako’s had a bit of attention in Asks since mostly off-screen debut in a Lord Tier commission not too long ago. I wanted to try working one of them out eventually, and thought this pairing sounded fun. The premise for how I handled the answer was that Ember wouldn’t see anything particularly scary about Sadako or her tape due to her own Halloweenish nature (sort of a “to me, a crazy straw is just a straw” type of comedic perspective). I hope that came across in how she answered.
Also, for anyone who’s interested, here’s the Q&A video I did for Subscribers last month:
Mikasa and Ember are an interesting pair, as they have a sort of two-pronged path bringing them together. On the one hand, Mikasa’s partner Eren has worked multiple times with Ember’s partner Silas, including one foursome that involved both girls. Beyond that, Mikasa’s been exploring this goth arc recently, and while I don’t intend for it to be a main feature of her character in the Studio, it is a fun angle to revisit and one that fits well with Ember’s spooky Halloween roots.
